


Partners

by xcacelas



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 14:25:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6119223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xcacelas/pseuds/xcacelas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She overslept and she's late to class. Sakura needs a partner for the term project but who the hell can she ask? What about the weird, quiet girl who's also late?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Partners

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wanted an excuse to write a college AU tbh.

Ino whacked a pillow over Sakura’s head.

          Sakura’s eye shot open and her head sprang up from her pillow but she was knocked down again after Ino swung another hit at her.

          “Ok, I’m awake!” Sakura grumbled.

          Ino clutched the pillow and held it over her head until Sakura yanked it from her grasp. She threw it against the wall where Ino ducked down and it knocked over a lamp.

          “Sorry,” Ino said with a smirk creeping onto her face, “I’ve just never seen you looking so dead. You weren’t even snoring.” She walked across the room and sat down on her bed. Pulling her laptop out of her bag, she balanced it over her crossed legs.

          Sakura let out a loud yawn and rubbed her eyes, “I was up late finishing my philosophy paper, remember?”

          “Mhm, and you would’ve passed out on your laptop if it weren’t for me.”

          “Oh shut up.”

          “Why were you working on it anyways, it’s not due till the end of the term.”

          “I like to get ahead.”

          Sakura got up and stretched her arms over her head. She looked over at Ino and noticed that she was fully dressed and even had make-up on. “Why are you up so early? Usually I wake up before you.”

          Ino didn’t turn her attention away her from laptop screen, “I’m not.”

          Sakura walked into the bathroom, starting to brush her teeth with the door left open.

          “Not what?” Sakura asked.

          Ino didn’t respond and Sakura could hear her tapping away on the keyboard.

          “What time is it,” Sakura asked.

          “It’s 10 am,” Ino said.

          Sakura, who was gargling, choked over her spit and stumbled out of the bathroom. “What, I overslept?!”

           Ino nodded, her bangs falling over her eyes. She whipped her head up, tossing them over her head.

           “Why didn’t you tell me?” Sakura screeched. She ran into the room and started pulling random clothes out of drawers. A bra flew out of her hands and landed on Ino’s head.

           Ino threw it across the room where it landed on Sakura’s bed, “I was going to.”

           “Yeah, right.” Sakura stood up, struggling to pull over a hoodie over her head. She also tried to put on leggings at the same time but ended up tripping over the random pieces of clothes on the floor. Running back into the bathroom, she checked herself in the mirror and pulled up her pink hair into a low ponytail.

          There was no time for make-up. She could just go to her fist class and come back and fix herself before her next one. There wasn’t anybody she liked in this class anyawys.

           Grabbing her bag, Sakura shoved some pens and a pink binder into. She also grabbed her keys and cell phone.

           Sakura didn’t bother zipping up her bag before running out of the room with the door slamming behind her.

           “Bye,” Ino called out to no one. She didn’t bother telling Sakura that she wasn’t wearing any shoes.

* * *

          Sakura’s never been late to class before.

          Sure, she’s skipped a couple of lectures, like her biochemistry class since the professor, Kakashi, had a habit of not showing up until the last thirty minutes of class.

          But she never actually _walked-in_ late.

          She shuddered at the thought of everyone in the auditorium turning around and throwing her dirty looks for interrupting the lecture.

          The thought of going back to her dorm and sleeping in crossed her mind but this wasn’t a class she was willing to miss. The professor was going to discuss the term project and the students were expected to choose their partners today.

          Sakura’s hand hovered over the door handle. _I’m only 15 minutes late…_

          Taking in a deep breath, she opened the door as quietly as possible and walked in with her head lowered down.

          There was a lot of murmuring and she sneaked a peek at the class.

          None of the students were really paying any attention to her. All of them were immersed in their own conversations.

          She spotted the professor, Gai, walking around from group to group, having individual conversation with the students.

          Sakura sat near the back of the auditorium instead of her usual spot since she didn’t want to cram her way into the front.

          “Ah, Sakura-san!” Gai said when he finally spotted her. He jogged over to her, “Remember you have to choose your partner today for the term project.” He handed her a piece of paper.

          Sakura nodded and stood up, looking around for a partner. She didn’t really know anyone in the class but there was bound to be someone who didn’t have a partner yet… Right?

          Her eyes scanned the people down the aisles. _Let’s see…_

          There was that red-headed girl with the glasses! No, she seemed to be talking to another girl who her hair up in buns.

          Ah, what about the red-headed boy?

          She seemed to have an eye out for gingers today.

          She started walking down the aisle to approach him until another boy grabbed his shoulder and asked him to be his partner.

          Kneeling down, she pretended to tie her shoe when a pair of students turned around to look at her when she stopped in the middle of the aisle.

          Crap, everyone already seems to be paired off.

          Just when she thought of going to Gai and asking if she could either work alone or in a group of three, she turned around seeing another girl walk in late.

          She had long, dark hair and was wearing a surgical mask. Her appearance was a lot more disheveled than Sakura’s and she could see her chest rising rapidly as if she was struggling to breathe.

          Sakura ran up to her, “Do you have a partner?”

          “Eh?” The girl looked at her puzzled. Her eyes seemed to be really red and puffy too.

          Sakura hesitated and cleared her throat.

          “We need to pick partners for the project,” she said and gestured towards the class, “Everyone is paired off already, do you want to be my partner?”

          “I-I guess.”

          The girl slowly nodded her head and Sakura led her over to her seat.

          “The professor just handed out the sheets so we just need to pick a topic for our research,” Sakura started.

          She went on, reading the sheet out loud and going over the instructions.

          The girl folded her hands across her lap and listened along. Sakura noticed how she hadn’t taken off her jacket or the thick white scarf wrapped around her neck. She also seemed to be shivering a little.

          “By the way, are you ok?” Sakura asked when the girl coughed a third time. She also kept sniffing and lifting up her mask to blow her nose.

          “I’m fine,” she wheezed out. “I just have a cold but I’m getting better.”

           “Oh ok,” Sakura said, “I have some more tissues if you want.” She rummaged through her bag, holding out squashed packet of tissues. “What’s your name?”

          “M-my name?”

           “Yeah, you never told me.”

           “Oh…” the girl looked down at her skirt and cleared her throat, “It’s Hinata.”

          “My name is Sakura,” she stated, letting out a smile.

          “I know,” the girl mumbled.

          “Huh?”

          Hinata’s cheeks flushed as she realized she spoke out loud, “I-I remembered your name because the professor always calls on you.”

          “Ah, that he does,” Sakura said. She didn’t realize how often she spoke out loud in class. It just came natural to her.

          “And you usually sit in the front and you’re always eating cheese nips.”

          Now Sakura started to blush, “Er, yea that’s cause I steal some of them from my roommate.” She laughed, hiding her mouth behind her hand.

           Hinata giggled too.

           They talked throughout the rest of the class. They didn’t even notice when Gai started speaking out loud and a few students hushed them to be quiet.

           Sakura noticed how open Hinata was becoming after a while. Her shyness seemed to dissipate when they started talking about other things such as what other classes they were taking and what year they were in.

Sakura was a bit perturbed when Hinata told her she was taking six courses. Sakura tried that last semester and it did not go well.

           Hinata spoke very quietly though and Sakura had to lean her head in to catch what she was saying sometimes.

           Hinata became flustered at that and apologized for speaking so low but Sakura thought it was cute and waved her off, reminding Hinata that she was still recovering so she shouldn’t strain herself too much.

           As class ended and they walked out together, Sakura thought how lucky she was for being late that morning.

* * *

           They agreed to meet up at the library on Saturday afternoon. Hinata told her that she managed to reserve a room for them to work on their project.

           Sakura messaged her that she was on her way when she walked out of her dorm room.

           Hinata was really insistent on starting their project on campus that weekend and she briefly wondered why. The project wasn’t due for another month after all.

          Sakura was surprised to find another person as eager as her to study. Ino scoffed at the thought of her wasting another Saturday away.

           As she walked past the cafeteria, she checked her phone to see if Hinata replied back.

           There weren’t any new messages but her phone started to give out a low battery signal.

            _Shit. I thought I charged it._

           Sakura rummaged through her purse and pulled out her charger. Having a crappy phone taught her to always have it on hand.          

           She ran into the library and settled down on one of the benches, near a plug outlet.

           While her phone charged, Sakura took out her binder to check over her notes. She kept lifting her head up to search for Hinata.

           After ten minutes, Sakura sent her another message asking Hinata if she was nearby.

           About twenty minutes passed and Sakura frowned at how late Hinata was. She was the one who picked the time.

           Sakura decided to call her instead.

           Except the call wouldn’t go through. It wouldn’t even let her dial the number.

           She started at her phone, confused at what was going. Dialing again, she lifted the phone to her ear.

           She listened while a recorded message played, telling her that she had no reception.

            _No._

           Panicking, she dialed Ino’s number. Same message

_Oh crap._

           What should she do? She had no reception and she couldn’t contact anyone. It’s been over half an hour and Hinata still wasn’t there. Maybe they were supposed to meet somewhere else?

          Hinata didn’t live on-campus, what if she meant the city library? Or what if she didn’t know where the school library was?

           Throwing out the ridiculous thought out of her mind, Sakura started thinking of what to do.

          She wasn’t aware of how she clutched her phone as if it was her life support. Her fingers accidentally pressed one of the buttons too hard and her phone let out a beep.

           Wait a second, she had her phone. And she was at the library.

           There wasn’t any reception but her phone was connected to the wi-fi. The signal seemed weak but it would have to do. She immediately sent an IM to Ino.

_Help, my phone isn’t working and I can’t find Hinata._

          It must’ve taken a while for the message to go through since Ino took longer than usual to reply. _Who?_

          Sakura grinded her teeth. _Hinata! The girl I’m supposed to meet up with._

_Oh. What do you want me to do? And how are you messaging me?_

          Sakura sat upright and held her phone over her head. Maybe this way she could get a better signal. _I’m using the school wi-fi, I’m not getting any reception though. I think I forgot to pay my phone bill._

_Do you want me to call her for you?_

_Yes, see if you can ask her where she is. Let me send you her number._ She copied Hinata’s number and messaged it to Ino.

_Got it, let me get back to you._

          Sakura chewed on her nails. Ok, so it wouldn’t be a big deal if she went to the wrong place. Hinata seemed like she would forgive her easily.

          A buzz from her phone interrupted her thoughts. Her eyes widened when she skimmed over the message.

_Sakura, she’s in the hospital._

          What? Sakura sat upright, knocking her bag to the ground.

_What?! Is she ok?!_

          She kept sending Ino message after message, some of them undecipherable since her fingers wouldn’t stop shaking.

_Calm down, I don’t know what happened. I talked to her sister, I think her name was Hanabi, and she said that apparently they took Hinata to the emergency this morning. The girl was a bit of a brat, actually._

_What do I do? Where is she?_

_Just come back home._

_But we’re supposed to study…_

_Well, she’s not there is she?_

          Ino was right. There was no point in sitting around the library if Hinata was sick.

          Her phone buzzed with another message. _That was rather rude of her don’t you think? She could’ve let you know she was in the hospital._

          Sakura shut her phone and yanked out the charger.

* * *

           When she got back to the dorm, Ino wasted no time in replaying her conversation with Hinata’s sister.

           “And so I was like is Hinata there? And then this girl got pretty snarky with me, saying how I was being rude and that her sister was really sick and of course when I asked what happened, she was all it’s none of your business and-”

           “So you don’t know what happened?” Sakura interrupted.

           Ino shook her head. “No, she hanged up on me after that.”

           Sakura chewed on her bottom lip, “I think I know… She seemed pretty sick on Thursday. She said she was getting better but I guess she got worse.”

           Ino shrugged, “I guess so.” She threw herself onto her bed, going through her phone. “I guess that means you don’t have to study tonight. You can go out with me.”

           Sakura pondered over that, “Yea, I guess…”

           “Great, I’m going to straighten my hair then.”  Ino got up and went to the bathroom. Sakura sat down on her desk, throwing her backpack on the floor, after pulling out her binder.

          “There’s a party going on at one of the frat houses. Wanna come?” Ino called out from the bathroom.

          Sakura, who was looking over her notes, didn’t respond. She was looking over Hinata’s number which she had scribbled in class.

          “What are you doing,” Ino asked when she walked back into the room.

          Sakura was on Ino’s bed and holding her phone. She started dialing Hinata’s number. “I’m going to try one more time.”

          The phone only rang twice until it was picked up.

          “You again?” a voice cut in. It was a girl’s voice.

          “Hi, sorry, I just wanted to ask how Hinata was doing?”

          “She’s fine.”

          “Are you sure? Cause we were supposed to study today and-”

          “Look what happened was that she was dropping me off at practice and she fainted at the parking lot. She had a really high fever so I took her to the emergency room.”

          “Are you still at the hospital?”

          “Yes.”

          “Good, I’m coming.”

          Sakura ignored the girl’s protest and hanged up the phone. She passed it over to Ino and started putting on her shoes.

          “You’re going,” Ino asked.

          Sakura nodded and put on her coat. Grabbing her backpack, she buttoned up her coat and opened the door.

          “Why is this so important to you?” Ino said.

          Sakura paused. She didn’t know herself. “I’ll just drop by for a bit and come back.”

* * *

           It was rather stupid of her to rush over on such a whim. She and Hinata weren’t even that close. What would she say to her when she spotted her? She probably didn’t want a stranger seeing her sick.

          Sakura sat down in the waiting room. She didn’t know who to look for and the girl at the reception’s desk didn’t offer any help.

          Well, she was here now, and there was no point in going back.

          Maybe she should wait for an hour before giving up and going home. Ino will laugh at her for it but whatever.

           She waited for a while, watching the people go in and out of the waiting room.

           A girl walked out of one of the examination rooms and started talking to the receptionist.

          She resembled Hinata a bit, Sakura thought. The girl’s hair was a few shades lighter and she was shorter too.

          It wasn’t till she turned around that Sakura realized they had the same eyes as Hinata. Who wouldn’t miss those strange light eyes?

          That must be her sister!

          “Hey!” Sakura called out “Are you Hinata’s sister?”

          The girl scrutinized her, “Who are you?”

           “I’m your sister’s friend, Sakura, I’m in her geography class.” She said. “Uhm, sorry, was your name Happiny?”

           The girl’s nose wrinkled, “It’s Hanabi… and my sister can’t see anyone now, she’s too sick.”

           “Oh… I just wanted to make sure she’s ok.”

           “Are you really her friend,” Hanabi asked. Her face seemed skeptical and she didn’t bother masking her indignant tone.

           Sakura flinched at Hanabi’s word and she raised a brow at Sakura’s reaction.

_What’s with her?_ Sakura thought.

          Sure, she might havestepped over the line by coming over but she didn’t have to be so rude. _Maybe Ino was right, I should’ve stayed home._

           “Yes,” Sakura said a bit nervously. Hanabi may be over a head shorter than her but she still felt intimidated by the girl’s attitude.

          Hanabi may look like Hinata but they couldn’t be any different in personality.

          There was a moment of silence between them and Sakura tried to smile at Hanabi but it came out forced and awkward. Hananbi sneered at her.

           “She doesn’t have any friends…” Hanabi said. “We just moved here and-”

           “Hanabi?”

           Hanabi stiffened at the voice and turned around to face Hinata who was walking over to them, “Nee-chan.”

           “Sakura-san?” Hinata said when she spotted her. “You’re here?”

           “Yes, I thought I’d come over to see how you were doing?”

           “Eh, you didn’t have to do that!” Hinata started waving her hands in desperation. “I’m so sorry to be such a bother, I-”

           She went into a coughing fit and Hanabi threw glares at Sakura as she patted Hinata on the back.

           Sakura opened her backpack and pulled out her water bottle. She offered it to Hinata but Hanabi snatched it out of her hands and gave it to her sister.

          That girl was awfully overprotective of her.

          “I’m sorry about today,” Hinata said after a couple sips of water.

           “That’s ok, are you feeling better?”

           “Yes, they gave me antibiotics.”

           They started walking out of the waiting room, heading over to the parking lot.

           “How did you get here,” Hinata asked.

           “I just took the bus.”

           “Let me give you a ride home, it’s the least I can do.”

           Hanabi opened her mouth to say something but closed her mouth when Hinata grabbed her hand.

           Hanabi pouted but nodded along when Hinata looked over at her in question, “Yes, come with us Sakura.”

           Though Sakura found it hilarious, she didn’t dare laugh at Hanabi. The girl may seem tough but she struggled to stand up to Hinata.

           They all got into the car, Hanabi walking over to the back after she offered the passenger seat to Sakura.

          “Do you want to come over,” Hinata asked when she started the car. “Since we weren’t able to study we could go to my house.”

          Sakura looked over at her, “Eh, but are you feeling better?”

          “Yes, I’m fine now.” Hinata assured her, “Uhm, that is if you want to come over, it’s ok if you don’t.”

          Sakura turned aroundi when she heard a scoff. Hanabi was rolling her eyes at Hinata’s expression.

          “Sure, I’ll come over,” Sakura said.

          Hinata failed to hide her giddiness as her face broke out into a wide smile and she perked up in her seat.

          “Let me use your phone though, I have to call my roommate,” Sakura said.

          She needed to tell Ino she was going to miss the party after all.


End file.
